Wednesday’s Buzz: 8.28.13

The Buckley Program has acquired the William H. Taft Mansion to serve as its permanent home. Photo by William Freedberg.

THE NEWS

Three years from now, much of Sterling Chemistry Laboratory will be unrecognizable after the University completes a $130 million renovation of the building. In May, the University began a construction project on SCL that includes new teaching laboratories for chemistry and biology and will be completed in August 2016. Though in the mid-2000s the University had planned to build a $500 million Undergraduate Science Center, Provost Benjamin Polak said a project of that scale was no longer possible after the onset of the financial downturn in 2008.

The William H. Taft Mansion — a quiet, cream-colored three-story house that sits on Whitney Avenue in New Haven — has seen its fair share of history throughout the years. And now, it has a renewed political presence as the permanent home of Yale’s conservative William F. Buckley Jr. Program. Founded in 2010 by a group of undergraduates, the Buckley Program aims to inject new opinions into campus dialogue by offering a conservative speaker series, funding summer internships for undergraduates, and hosting debates and workshops. After receiving $500,000 from a single unnamed donor, the program will move into the 27th U.S. President’s former house next January with a two-year lease and an option to buy. According to board members of the program, the building will serve as a space for speakers and events and will potentially house conservative thinkers and writers as fellows in the future.

This year, a long-standing and hectic Yale tradition — a cappella rush — is undergoing significant changes. Rush for groups registered with the Singing Group Council will span approximately two weeks this fall, marking a departure from the nearly month-long rush process of recent years. The new schedule comes with a slew of other changes meant to simplify the process and ensure a better experience for freshmen, according to all four members of the Singing Group Council.